Description

The Great Victoria Desert is the largest
desert in Australia, and a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. It’s located in
Western Australia’s southern range-lands, and extends into the western half of South
Australia. The Great Victoria is one of the 10 most notable Australian deserts. The Great Victoria Desert occupies an area of
161,680 square miles, and spans 435 miles at its longest extent, according to Australia’s Alinytjara
Wilurara’s Natural Resources Management (NRM). The Great Victoria Desert is largely a weed-free landscape, though there are 9 threatened plant species in it, according to
Australia’s Environment Department. Its landscape is dotted with seasonal, shallow playa lakes, as well as clay pans, red sand dunes, and stony plains. There are no permanent water sources in the
Great Victoria Desert.

Historical Role

The Great Victoria Desert was named after the then-ruling United Kingdom monarch, Queen Victoria, by explorer Ernest Giles. Giles was the first ever explorer to crisscross
it with his team on camels, doing so from May to November of 1875, according to South
Australian History. David Lindsey was the
next explorer to have crossed the Great Victoria Desert from North to South in 1891.
Frank Hann then followed, traversing the desert from 1903 to 1908 in search
of pastures suited for grazing and the presence of gold deposits. Len Beadell, a surveyor for the Australian Army, also crossed
the desert as he worked in the building of the Anne
Beadell Highway from 1953 to 1960. According to Australian Geographic, aboriginal communities have lived in the Great Victoria Desert for at least
15,000 years. Oak Valley, Watarru, and
Walalkara are the parts of the desert where the largest of these communities live.

Modern Significance

In Australia, according to the country’s
government, desert tourism influences nearly all other the industries in the Great Victoria
region, including their infrastructure and the quality of life among the populations there. Tours to deserts like the Great Victoria
Desert contribute $94.8 million daily to the economy. This desert is endowed with unique flora and
fauna, and many tourists and researchers visit here just to see them. Other tourists are more allured by the opportunity yo get to experience the aboriginal
culture.

Habitat and Biodiversity

The climate at the Great Victoria Desert is characteristically arid,
and the mean annual rainfall is in the range of 150 millimeters to 200 millimeters, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Summers are
the hottest, with temperatures between 32 and 35 degrees Celsius. This climate sustains
the open woodlands of eucalyptus gongylocarpa,
pyriformis and socialis, casuarinas, and hummock grass, as well as Acacia aneura. There also are shrubs like Maireana sedifolia and Dodenaea attenuata to be found there. The Great Victoria Desert
is home to 15 bird species, of which 4 are threatened, according to NRM. Some of
these birds are the Princess parrot, Mallee fowl, and the Scarlet-Chested parrot.
There also are 95 reptile species, 10 threatened mammal species, and the
largest known population of Sandhill dunnarts (a small marsupial carnivore).

Environmental Threats and Territorial Disputes

Weapons testing ( especially nuclear) and mining are the
main threats to the Great Victoria Desert's biodiversity, according to World Wildlife Fund. They
pollute and cause vegetation to be cleared and fragmented, thereby destroying
the desert’s ecological balance. Past
nuclear tests conducted there between 1953 and 1963 left sections of the deserts in Maralinga
and Emu contaminated with radionuclides.
Plutonium-239 deposits in the long term also threaten the health of animals
in the desert if inhaled, due to their long radioactive half-lives. Road building and vehicles being driven off of designated
tracks also disrupt the desert ecosystems. As such, permits for off-trail drives are
needed. Introduced animals like camels, rabbits, and house mice, which increase during
rains, also feed on, and thereby take away from, native vegetation fed on by native mammals of the Great
Victoria Desert.